Bynempt a facred vow," which none should ay releace.

61.

The dead knights fword out of his sheath he drew,
With which he cutt a lock of all their heare,'
Which medling with their blood and earth he threw
Into the grave, and gan devoutly fweare;
"Such and fuch evil God on Guyon reare,
And worfe and worfe, young Orphane, be thy payne,
If I, or thou, dew vengeaunce doe forbeare,
Till guiltie blood her guerdon doe obtayne!"-
So fhedding many teares they clofd the earth agayne.

b Bynempt a facred vow.] i. e. took a facred vow; from the Germ. nehmen, to take, with the prefix by. The word "bynempt" alfo occurs in "The Shep. Cal." vol. i. p. 126; but there it feems rather to mean to name, or mention. Todd would here also understand "bynempt" as named; but he was mistaken in the etymology: it has in this place no connection with the German word beiname, a nickname. C.

With which he cutt a lock of all their beare.] This feems an allufion to the custom of cutting off a lock of hair of dying perfons, which was looked on as a kind of offering to the infernal deities. Juno orders Iris to perform this office to Dido, Virgil, Æn. vi. 694. And in the "Alceftis of Euripides," Death fays he is come to perform this office to Alceftis. There was likewise another ceremony, which was for the friends and relations of the deceased to cut off their own hair, and to fcatter it upon the dead corfe. "Nec traxit cæfas per tua membra ." Confol. ad Liv. ver. 98. UPTON.

comas.

Which medling.] Mixing the hair, &c. Fr. mêler. So, in "The Shep. Cal." April, [vol. i. p. 46]:

"The red rofe medled with the white yfere."

Again, in May, [vol. i. p. 65]:

"Thus medled his talk with many a tear." CHURCH. In both places E. K. has fupplied the glofs, viz. " medled, mingled," and we have thought it needless to add to it. C.

HUS when Sir Guyon with his faithful
guyde

Had with dew rites and dolorous lament
The end of their fad Tragedie uptyde,

The litle babe up in his armes he hent;"
Who with sweet pleafaunce, and bold blandishment,
Gan fmyle on them, that rather ought to weepe,
As careleffe of his woe, or innocent

Of that was doen; that ruth emperced deepe

In that knightes hart, and wordes with bitter teares did

steepe:

2.

"Ah! luckleffe babe, borne under cruell ftarre,
And in dead parents balefull afhes bred,
Full little weeneft thou what forrowes are
Left thee for porcion of thy livelyhed;
Poore Orphane! in the wild world scattered,
As budding braunch rent from the native tree,

a in his armes he bent.] In his arms he took: A. S. bentan. Shakefpeare repeatedly ufes both "hent" and hint; the laft as a fubftantive. C.

And throwen forth, till it be withered.

Such is the ftate of men: Thus enter we Into this life with woe, and end with miferee!"

3.

Then, foft himselfe inclyning on his knee

Downe to that well, did in the water weene
(So love does loath disdainefull nicitee)

His guiltie handes from bloody gore to cleene.
He washt them oft and oft, yet nought they beene
For all his washing cleaner. Still he ftrove;
Yet ftill the litle hands were bloody feene:
The which him into great amaz'ment drove,
And into diverse doubt his wavering wonder clove.

4.

He wift not whether blott of fowle offence

Might not be purgd with water nor with bath;
Or that high God, in lieu of innocence,
Imprinted had that token of his wrath,

b

To fhew how fore bloodguiltineffe he hat'th;"
Or that the charme and veneme which they dronck,
Their blood with fecret filth infected hath,

Being diffused through the fenceless tronck,

That through the great contagion direful deadly stonck.

5.

Whom thus at gaze the Palmer gan to borde With goodly reason, and thus fayre befpake; "Ye bene right hard amated, gratious Lord,

↳ To fhew how fore bloodguiltinesse he hat'th.] We meet with bloodguiltineffe again in St. 30; and again in F. Q. ii. vii. 19. This is a word which would have been ranked among Spenfer's obfolete terms, had it not been accidentally preferved to us in the tranflation of the Pfalms used in our Liturgy, and by that means rendered familiar. “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God." Pfal. li. 14. T. WARton.

the Palmer gan to bord.] To “ bord," from the Fr. aborder, means, to approach, or accoft. To accoft, is ftrictly to come up to the fide of; and to " bord," to advance to a limit or boundary. C.

dre bene right hard amated.] The etymology of the verb to

And of your ignorance great merveill make,
Whiles cause not well conceived ye mistake:
But know, that fecret vertues are infufd
In every fountaine, and in everie lake,

Which who hath skill them rightly to have chufd, To proofe of pafling wonders hath full often ufd:

6.

"Of those, some were fo from their fourse indewd
By great Dame Nature, from whose fruitfull pap
Their welheads spring, and are with moisture deawd;
Which feedes each living plant with liquid fap,
And filles with flowres fayre Floraes painted lap:
But other fome, by guifte of later grace,

Or by good prayers, or by other hap,

Had vertue pourd into their waters bace,

And thenceforth were renowmd, and fought from place

to place.

7.

"Such is this well, wrought by occafion ftraunge, Which to her Nymph befell. Upon a day,

As fhe the woodes with bow and fhaftes did raunge,
The hartleffe Hynd and Robucke to dismay,
Dan Faunus chaunst to meet her by the way,
And, kindling fire at her faire-burning eye,

Inflamed was to follow beauties pray,

amate" has been variously given: to mate, is to confound; and here "amated" is, probably, to be understood as confounded, puzzled, perplexed, which laft is the fenfe given by Todd. The Spanish matar, to kill, is the fame as the Italian amazzare; and to mate, in English, is frequently used for to deftroy. The text of the 4to. 1590 is, “ Ye bene right bart amated;" and if we take "hart-amated as a compound, we are not by any means fure that it is not right: Guyon might be amated in heart; but later impreffions read “hard amated." C.

66

to follow beauties pray.] It is "beauties chace" in all the old impreffions; but the rhyme fhows it to be wrong. Church did not at all know what word to fubftitute; and Todd fuggefted ray, as the conjecture of the editor of "The Sad Shepherd" of Ben Jonfon. Drayton, in his copy of the folio 1611, has, doubtlefs, furnished the right word,

And chaced her that faft from him did fly; As hynd from her, fo fhe fled from her enimy.

8.

"At laft, when fayling breath began to faint,
And faw no meanes to fcape; of fhame affrayd,
She fet her downe to weepe for fore constraint;
And to Diana calling lowd for ayde,

Her deare befought to let her die a mayd.
The goddeffe heard; and fuddeine, where she fate
Welling out streames of teares, and quite difmayd
With ftony feare of that rude ruftick mate,
Transformd her to a stone from stedfast virgins state.

9.

"Lo! now she is that stone; from whose two heads,
As from two weeping eyes, fresh streames do flow,
Yet colde through feare and old conceived dreads;
And yet the ftone her femblance feemes to show,
Shapt like a maide, that fuch ye may her know:
And
yet her vertues in her water byde,

For it is chafte and pure as purest snow,
Ne lets her waves with any filth be dyde;

But ever, like herselfe, unftayned hath beene tryde.

10.

"From thence it comes, that this babes bloody hand
May not be clenfd with water of this well :
Ne certes, Sir, strive you it to withstand,
But let them still be bloody, as befell,
That they his mothers innocence may tell,

"pray," i. e. prey: Faunus was inflamed to follow "beauty's prey," or the beautiful prey of which he was in chase. We have therefore had no hesitation in inferting "pray" in the text, being convinced, on the authority of Drayton, fupported by the rhyme and the obvious fenfe of the paffage, that "pray" mult have been Spenfer's word. Above, we ought poffibly to read a Nymph, inftead of "her Nymph," unless we are to fuppofe that "her" applies to the well. Drayton here placed a mark in his margin, but made no alteration. C.